RESUMO
BACKGROUND: There is still a need for simple, noninvasive, and inexpensive methods to diagnose the causes of cognitive impairment and dementia. In this study, contemporary statistical methods were used to classify the clinical cases of cognitive impairment based on electroencephalograms (EEG). METHODS: An EEG database was established from seven different groups of subjects with cognitive impairment and dementia as well as healthy controls. A classifier was created for each possible pair of groups using statistical pattern recognition (SPR). RESULTS: A good-to-excellent separation was found when differentiating cases of degenerative disorders from controls, vascular disorders, and depression but this was less so when the likelihood of comorbidity was high. CONCLUSIONS: Using EEG with SPR seems to be a reliable method for diagnosing the causes of cognitive impairment and dementia, but comorbidity must be taken into account.